The present invention relates to compositions for treating hard surfaces, comprising a water-soluble or water-dispersible compound as component A which is obtainable by reacting: aa) polyalkylenepolyamines, polyamidoamines, polyamidoamines grafted with ethyleneimine, polyether-amines and mixtures of said compounds, as component Aa; ab) if appropriate at least bifunctional crosslinkers which have, as functional group, a halogenhydrin, glycidyl, aziridine or isocyanate unit or a halogen atom, as component Ab; and ac) monoethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acids, salts, esters, amides or nitriles of monoethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acids, chlorocarboxylic acids and/or glycidyl compounds, such as glycidyl acid, glycidylamide or glycidyl esters; and water; to a process for the preparation of a water-soluble or water-dispersible compound, to water-soluble or water-dispersible compounds preparable by the process according to the invention, and to the use of water-soluble or water-dispersible compounds according to the present application in compositions for treating hard surfaces.